A FORMER parliamentary candidate who withdrew from last year’s General Election just weeks before voters went to the polls has threatened legal action against his former colleagues - including party leader Tim Farron.

Chris Foote Wood, a member of the Liberal Democrat party since he was 16, said the party has failed to deal with his “long-standing complaints”.

Mr Foote Wood, 75, from Darlington, pulled out as candidate for MP for Richmond, North Yorkshire, in March 2015 – saying the Richmond Liberal Democrat Association had not provided him with the support he needed to be successful.

He said: “It is with deep regret that I have been compelled to take legal action against the Liberal Democrats over the party’s failure to deal with my long-standing complaints.

“On my instructions, my solicitors have written formally to the party to say that, if positive steps to resolve these issues are not initiated by the deadline of May 11, we will make an application to the courts to require the party to take action.

“This could involve issuing writs against senior party officials, including the leader, president and chief executive, along with other party officers.

“This dates back to March last year when, due to the actions of three senior members of the Richmond Local Party, I had no option but to resign as LibDem candidate for Richmond.

“The local party subsequently made a complaint against me that I had ‘brought the party into disrepute’.

“I utterly refute this pernicious accusation, which in my view is completely without merit and indeed is based on an accusation that is totally false and can be proven to be so.”

Mr Foote Wood, who has stood as a candidate for Westminster on eight previous occasions, criticised three senior association officials who he accused of being behind the party’s lack of support.

He said the then association chairwoman Caroline Seymour, as well as senior association members John Harris and Richard Good, had made “distasteful and derogatory” remarks to him.

He added that he believes two officials appointed by the party failed to deal with his complaint properly.

“As a result, I have had this false accusation hanging over me, unresolved, ever since," he said.

"From last September onwards I have contacted numerous party officials, up to and including the leader, on several occasions, but not one has had the common decency even to acknowledge my complaints, let alone deal with them.”

Mr Foote Wood said his solicitor’s letter requires the party to start proceedings to resolve the complaint; and against the officials who dealt with the complaint initially.

The Liberal Democrat party, nationally and locally, declined to comment.